When Black and White originally came out I was enthralled by the entire idea of it. Unfortunately at the time I did not own a computer that was powerful enough to run it, and by the time I did have one, the game was pretty much off the shelves. When Black and White 2 was announced in development I was excited at the prospect of getting to finally try this game out, and now that I have I can say that this is a game that you should all go purchase. This game has some of the most unique and fun ideas that I have seen in a game in a long time. Bottom line is that if you own a PC you should at least try this game out, as it will convince you to purchase it immediately.

The basic story for this game is that you have been awaked because the people need a god to help them with all of their troubles. So your two advisers, one good and one evil, awaken you and teach you what you need to do in order to help your people, whether it is good or bad it is up to you. Players then pick a creature that will symbolize them and to teach; the creatures you can choose between are a lion, cow, ape, or wolf. Then it is off to help your people, the Greeks, to re-establish themselves since they were nearly annihilated by the evil and sinister Aztecs. It is your job to help them become a power once more to either be feared of lauded. Are you up to the challenge?

The first thing that you need to know about this game is that just like the majority of Peter Molyneux games, there is a huge morality code prevalent all throughout the game. No matter which aliment that you choose everything around you will reflect that choice. For instance if you choose to be a good god everything around you will be teeming with life and everyone will be happy. If you choose to be evil, the buildings will look dilapidated, the ground will have magma covering it, and other various traits showing off your evil side. So everything you do has a choice, good or bad. If you need to take over a town, the good way to do it is by persuading the people to come over by building up your impressiveness; if you are evil you will take an army over to the and just capture the city outright. It is just important to remember that you can choose the good way or bad way when you need a task complete, and that each one will affect your town and creature in various ways.

While playing the game you will have many different objectives but the two main things that become your focus is supporting your city and teaching your creature. When you are playing the game you will see your city and it will have four different columns showing you the following: information about your town, your people’s desires, resource desires, and your alignment. The two that you will have to pay close attention to are the people’s desires and resources. The desires range from getting more sleep, more houses, storage, and a variety of other things people needed on a day-to-day basis. The resources column shows you what you need more of such as wood, food, and other resources that are in the game. If you want to see how good or evil you are, all you have to do is look at the alignment statue - if it is shooting fire and is high up this means that you lean more towards evil, and if it is shooting water it means that you are doing good. These small visual touches that are in this game make it a lot easier to get work completed and makes it more fun to play.

The biggest draw to Black and White 2 is playing and teaching your creature. There are many different things that you can do with them. You can teach them to be a builder, soldier, entertainer, and various other things. What I really liked is that the creature will sometimes tell you what it is about to do, so you can give him positive reinforcement if it is something you want him to learn, by scratching and petting him. Or if it is something you don’t want him to learn you will slap him into submission. Players are given further control of your creature by using various leashes. If you allow him to be on a building leash he will become an excellent builder, but will lose his free will and become a robot, so players will want to keep a balance of the different leashes so that he will decide to do these things on his own without any assistance from you.

One of the best things that the developers did in this game is the way the toolbar is set up. Unlike many games, this toolbar is hidden and only brought up by pressing its icon or pressing its corresponding button. This allows players to see more of the game and get a better sense of how big it truly is. In this toolbar you can select different buildings you wish to have your people build, buy new buildings, set up different leashes for your animal, and do a variety of other things that this game requires.

Black and White 2 sports some of the best looking graphics that can be seen on the PC, especially considering the gigantic scale that this game offers. You can actually zoom all the way down to the ground and see the blades of grass, stocks of food, and even ants and other bugs scurry along the ground. On the other end of the spectrum you can zoom way out and look at the land through the clouds and see everything glimmering and shining. When you are looking at the game in a more normal setting you will see that the islands that you will be visiting throughout the game are a masterpiece to look at, meaning everything is just brimming with detail. The mountains usually have snow at the top of the peaks, the trees have lots of branches and you can see their roots when you pick them up. Seeing the sun bask everything on the island is a great thing as well.

The character models are also pretty well done from all of the villagers to your creature. The villages will have different appearances depending on what their job may be. For instance, if the village is agricultural based, you will will see the villagers carrying scythes around as they are getting ready for the harvest. If a character is pregnant you can watch her stomach get bigger until she has her child. As the villagers get older you will see that their hair will get grey and longer, until they eventually die. What I really liked is, depending on if you are evil or good, the landscape around you will change accordingly. For instance if you are evil, the land will looks grey and coated with liquid hot magma, or if you choose the path of good the land will become prosperous and have a nice feeling around it.

Going along with the great-looking graphics the sound for this game is also really good. The music for this game really fits the entire game’s atmosphere, and doesn’t distract the gamer from what they are doing at the time. The sound effects also are not over the top and fit well; it is nice to hear the occasional sawing of the trees for the building of various structures. Also the voices that were used for this game fit nicely and they will not get on your nerves in any sense. The only time it might get annoying is when one of them wants you to do a certain chore they will occasionally repeat it, but other than that everything in this game works out well.

Black and White 2 is rated Teen for crude humor, use alcohol, and violence.

The system requirements are as follows:
Windows XP or 2000
1.6 GHz or greater processor
512 MB of RAM
8X or faster CD/DVD drive
3.5 GB of disk space
64 MB Video Card
Direct X 9.0

Gameplay: 9.1
The scope of this game is huge and there is so much to do it is baffling. This game plays like an RTS and a simulator all in one. You can treat your villagers nice or badly and the game will reflect that choice as time goes on. The hours that you can spend teaching your creature is also really nice and enjoyable. There are so many different things that you can do in this game, and the best part is the controls are really easy to use and pick up on.

Graphics: 9.0
Black and White 2 is a great looking game. I tested the graphics on a lower-end machine, pulling the graphics detail all the way down and the game still looked good. The only bad thing is the occasional framerate hiccups but other than that the game looks wonderful.

Sound: 8.8
The music for this game really fits it perfectly. The soundtrack is really moving and fits really well in the atmosphere. The voice acting is not bad either, especially for your advisors.

Difficulty: Medium
The learning curve in the beginning of the game is pretty steep but thankfully the tutorials are really in-depth and help players get to know the ins and outs of the game pretty quickly. Once you get all the ideas of how to play the game, it will take a while to get adjusted to keeping track of everything to making sure your civilization will run properly.

Concept: 9.3
I really liked the entire game idea. Even though this is a sequel to the first game, I still liked everything about it. The way your creature reacts to everything adds so much replay and entertainment value. I liked how you can mold your creature into doing almost anything good or evil, and how it affects him and your citizens.

Overall: 9.0
Black and White 2 is a super-addicting game that will take up hours of your life. The game is a blast to play and it is always interesting to see what your creature will do next. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this game because you will not regret it.